When it comes to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) product design and manufacturing companies have many options in both desktop and cloud versions, and in a variety of licensing, including software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

Back in April we surveyed ConnectPress readers to see what PLM functionality they were interested in and to learn more about how/if they were using a PLM system (or multiple), and we found that the single most important feature respondents were interested in is managing data.

Collaboration was the second most requested feature. When asked about cloud-based PLM 57% said they were interested in it for a future deployment. You can hear the Roundtable to learn more about the results and hear from Autodesk's Ron Locklin and Oleg Shilovitsky (Beyond PLM, OpenBoM) on PLM trends and their respective solutions here.

In alarming news, a survey released by cloud-based PLM contender, Arena Solutions, this past June revealed that half of product companies still use spreadsheets, or nothing at all to manage complex Bill of Materials (BOM).

If that sounds like your company you may want to see what Arena Solutions has to offer or check out the SaaS-based OpenBoM solution, launched by Shilovitsky and Vic Sanchez. OpenBoM is a cloud-based collaboration tool for managing BOMs, eliminating the need to track product data spreadsheets across networks of engineers, supply chain managers and contract manufacturers.

Autodesk continues to stand by their pitch for cloud-based PLM too, and have just announced Cloud PDM as part of their flagship PLM solution, Fusion Lifecycle (formerly Autodesk PLM 360), at their recent PLM event Accelerate 2016.

Going mobile continues to become more of a reality with solutions like Fusion Lifecyle and Onshape, who offers CAD, PDM and collaboration in their toolset.

But managing engineering data has expanded from much more than just CAD data, with the need for design teams to access analysis and simulation data and be able to communicate and share that data as well, to people outside of the discipline. A key player in this arena is ESTECO, who provides Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) solutions to help streamline collaboration, providing PDM and PLM integration with their products like SOMO and modeFrontier.

No matter what your needs are you're sure to get a feel for some of the options available to you and see how leading edge companies are deploying, in this Spotlight.

Don't get left behind and keep up with the competition as PLM usage continues to grow. CIMdata reported in their PLM Market Report Series a 2.8% increase in growth in 2015, up from 2014. You can see which companies derived the most revenues in the overall PLM market and read more about the report here.

CIMdata has also introduced a new practice focusing on the convergence of AEC and manufacturing in an effort to bridge the gap between manufacturing and the design, fabrication, and operation of facilities and ultimately reduce waste, budget, and timeline contingencies, improve compliance, quality, and the flow of information. Their latest research has found that PLM-based practices can also benefit the AEC.

Learn more about all the above, along with other PLM solutions like ENOVIA, Teamcenter, Windchill, Aras and more in this Spotlight.

ConnectPress would like to thank the sponsors of this PLM Spotlight, Autodesk and ESTECO. You can learn more about their products in this webinar, "Managing Simulation, Optimization, Collaboration and Process in a PDM - PLM Integrated System."